Saudi Arabia wants to invest in Porto. These are “great opportunities” for the country

A delegation of businesspeople and ministers will be visiting the city in May. The objective is to invest in health, tourism and real estate.

In May, the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, will receive a delegation from Saudi Arabia made up of “one hundred businesspeople” and “three or four ministers“, advances to Luís Filipe Menezespresident of the Luso-Saudi Business Council.

This Council, the Porto Chamber and the Arab-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry have already met to prepare the work.

The Middle Eastern country’s main focus in Porto is Matosinhos, more precisely the old Galp refinery, in Leça da Palmeira.

This place has been deactivated since 2021 and, according to Menezes, “it has the same resources as Cascais. The zone is free to be used in large projects.” And he adds that “we all know that it can be a fantastic area and which presupposes extra financial capacity”.

But the investment doesn’t stop there. There are also opportunities in other sectors, guarantees Rui Moreira, and investment is expanding to Porto. “We are talking about opportunities in health, tourism and real estate sectors. We need investment in housing. We want a city that is capable of generating quality jobs.”

The president of the Luso-Saudi Business Council, Alwalid Al-Baltansays that “we can create great opportunities of investments for Saudis and Portuguese”. He guarantees that “Porto is an industrial city and the association is focusing on production”.

Now, assures the mayor of Matosinhos, Luisa Salgueiro“compete at Galp evaluate investments” and “to the Chamber to ensure compliance with the rules”.

The current project to reuse the old Petrobras refinery aims to create a Innovation Districtthat is, a technological hub, described in the project as “a small technological city overlooking the sea”.

In addition, a University of Porto center will be built on land attached to the refinery.